DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kelly Bires is never completely satisfied
unless he drives the No. 47 Clorox Ford to Victory Lane. But Friday
night's 16th-place finish at the Winn-Dixie 250 at the Daytona
International Speedway left him with mixed emotions.

On one hand, the JTG Racing-prepared Ford Fusion was fast. On the other,
he got shuffled out of a Top-10 finish during the green-white-checkered
finish.

"We had a better can that what we finished," Bires said.
"That last restart with Carl Edwards, I don't know what happened
or where he came from. He really broke our momentum. We were on our way
to a solid Top-10 finish, if not a Top-Five finish but it got crazy there
at the end. We just lost our track position there."

Bires qualified 24th and planned to ride near the back of the pack during
the first 150 miles. By doing that, he wanted to keep the Clorox Ford
away from the three-wide, 10-deep packs of traffic that often lead to big
multi-car accidents.

With 100 miles to go, Bires had no trouble working his way back into
contention. b^0x001cWe got up into the Top-Five there, so the car was
plenty fast enough," said crew chief Scott Zipadelli. "At the end
of the race, guys start taking a lot of chances. That's why we needed
the green-white-checkered. Everyone gets shuffled around. Sometimes you
wind up moving forward; sometimes you move back. You're like a ping
pong ball.

"The most important thing for this Clorox team was to finish. We did
that. We brought a good car, we made it better on each pit stop and we
left with some ideas how to make it better. In all, it was a successful
trip."

Rain washed out the final practice session last Thursday, forcing the JTG
Racing team to create a race setup based on experience -- and a gut
feeling. "It would start loose, then it was go good and then it would
end up tight," Bires said. "We wanted to set it up loose so it
would turn. I feel like I turned it right half the night to gather it up.
It was like short-tracking. It was the only way to make our car
fast."

Bires remained 14th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings heading
into next Friday night's Dollar General 300 at the Chicagoland
Speedway, 31 points behind JTG Racing teammate Marcos Ambrose. More
important he's now only 129 points from a spot in the Top 10.

"We've had five Top-20 finishes in our last six races," Bires
said. "We're bringing better cars to the racetrack every week. I
think we're ready to take that next step where we have consistent
Top-10 finishes."